


Paper Crowns and Secret Keepers

by Askafroa, betheflame



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [12]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Getting Together, Kid Peter Parker, M/M, Omega Steve Rogers, Omega Tony Stark, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Precious Peter Parker, Steve Rogers Feels, Teacher Steve Rogers, Texting, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, so fluffy you might die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24222415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Askafroa/pseuds/Askafroa, https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Steve Rogers did not play favorites. He’d been one of the kindergarten teachers at Allensville Academy since he got out of graduate school and that was one of his key pedagogical beliefs - no playing favorites.But lands alive, if Peter Stark wasn’t testing his resolve.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Steve Rogers, Peter Parker & Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1599898
Comments: 47
Kudos: 679
Collections: POTS (18+) Smol Steve Appreciation Bingo, Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	Paper Crowns and Secret Keepers

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Flame and [Mairi's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Askafroa) wee collab for the Smol Steve Appreciation Bingo on the POTS server. Flame thought this was gonna be about 1k and then Mairi drew the first cartoon and then.. well.... here you go. 
> 
> Thanks to Marie for betaing at lightning speed and to Ferret for the bingo fill idea for TSB.
> 
> (ALSO. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE ART. Mairi is MAGIC. COMPLETELY MAGIC. - Flame) 
> 
> Bingo Fills:  
> POTS Smol Steve: Kindergarten Teacher  
> TSB Bingo:  
> Betheflame, Card 3017  
> Square Filled: S1 "Holding Hands"

* * *

Steve Rogers did not play favorites. He’d been one of the kindergarten teachers at Allensville Academy since he got out of graduate school and that was one of his key pedagogical beliefs - no playing favorites.

But lands alive, if Peter Stark wasn’t testing his resolve.

The only thing that moved faster than Peter’s mouth was his brain, but he was also sweet as candy, kind to the other students, and helpful whenever it was asked of him. Peter was a sensitive kid, who tended to cry easily and whenever he was frustrated - which was also frequently. He got frustrated when things weren’t fair, when he was bored, when he was confused, and whenever someone picked on his best friend MJ for having ‘crazy hair’.

“Peter,” Steve said softly, upon finding Peter curled into a corner of the coat closet during free play hour. “What’s wrong, kiddo?”

“I needed a moment to myself,” Peter replied, and Steve bit back a smile. It was Peter’s standard answer whenever he retreated to the corner of the coat closet - which Steve believed was his favorite spot. He’d get his stuffed spider from his cubby and curl into the corner. The answer was so quintessentially Peter - polite to a fault, exceptionally mature, and yet earnest in the way that only five-year-olds can be.

“Do you just wanna wait it out in here?”

“Yes, please.”

The thing that mystified him most was that this bundle of absolute joy came from their city’s most notorious alpha - Tony Stark.

Stark was the son of the son of the son of who founded the town and he carried himself like that mattered more than anything else. He owned the land the academy sat on, and a whole heap of other things, so the minute it was announced that Peter was born, the entire staff knew they’d be teaching him some day. They all assumed, however, that they’d be getting a spoiled brat - since Tony’s reputation at Allensville when he was a child still endured.

“Mr. Steve?”

At the moment, Steve was waiting for all the students to be ready to finish washing up from lunch so they could start arts and crafts time. They were going to be making hats for themselves that day, since they had just read Caps for Sale that morning and Steve could not wait to see what his class came up with. He was already sure that MJ would want something that could sit on top of her hair and not have to contain it, but he also knew it wouldn’t be a tiara. Nebula - he had so many questions for her parents about that name - would make a space helmet, Harley would make a hard hat, but he didn’t know what Peter would create.

“Yeah, Ned?”

“Can we put glitter on the hats?”

“No,” Steve said because that had been a clear directive from the principle. No glitter on things that went home with the kids. There had been complaints.

Ned’s face fell, but he quickly brightened. “Can I put lots of dots on paper so it looks like glitter?”

“Absolutely,” Steve assured the boy, who then scrambled over to his friends to presumably alert them of his creative brainwave.

“Okay, class,” Steve raised his voice after making sure they were all washed. Even though he was a physically small man (5’4” at his last physical and the scale had shown 110 that morning), he’d worked hard over the years to make sure his presence was large. He went to a voice coach in college to help him learn how to project over a classroom of children, he’d been in therapy for years to get comfortable in his own skin, and he felt pretty good about himself these days.

No small victory for a kid who spent elementary school getting folded into cubby holes.

“It’s craft time,” he called and was answered by sounds of celebration. “Can everyone go get their smocks from their cubbies, please?”

A scramble ensued and it took a few more minutes to get everyone settled at their tables and in their seats as he and his teaching assistant - a college student named Darcy - put all the appropriate supplies on the table.

“What you get to do for the next thirty minutes is to make a cap for yourself! It can be anything you want, you just need to be able to wear it. Miss Darcy and I will be helping you with things like glue and staples and things to make the hat make a shape, but you have to tell us what you want it to look like. So think hard, artists, and dream big!”

The soundtrack of Steve’s soul really was a room full of joyfully chattering children. He’d known he wanted to be a teacher for as long as he could remember. He loved kids and he knew it wasn’t just because he was an omega. It certainly made it easier to get a job - people still had stereotypes hung up around alphas being teachers.

He went around from child to child until he finally got to Peter. “Hey kiddo, whatcha making?”

“A crown,” Peter said solemnly. “Because MJ wants to be the queen and so I told her I’d be her helper person but we didn’t know what kind of hat they had and MJ said I could still have a crown.”

“Not the king?”

Peter shook his head and MJ piped in. “If he was a king then I wouldn’t be in charge. I wanna be in charge.”

Of course you do, Steve bit back a smirk. He adored MJ and would basically punch anyone who dulled her inner fire later on in her life. “Ah, so then Peter is your consort.”

“Her what?”

“It’s the word for a helper who isn’t married to the queen,” Steve explained.

“Oh, no, we’re married,” Peter said matter-of-factly. “She’s just in charge. Like in Engaland.”

“England,” Steve gently corrected and Peter nodded.

“My mom is always in charge,” MJ said.

“My moms fight about who’s in charge,” Ned chimed in.

“Then it’s Prince. Queen MJ and Prince Peter,” Steve explained, cutting off the parental secrets hour before it could get going and the two beamed at each other.

“Mr. Steve?” Peter said as he patiently cut out stars from his crown with the safety scissors.

“Yes?”

“Do you think my dad is gonna like my crown?”

Steve exhaled through his nose. Sometimes Peter said things like this and it made Steve want to punch Stark. Who wouldn’t love everything Peter does? Why would Peter doubt that his father would love his crown?

“I think he’ll love it, Peter,” Steve said with confidence and Peter beamed.

Steve moved on at that point and so did the day. Before long, it was 3:30 and time for the students to get picked up. Steve was one of the staff on the schedule that day to make sure all the students got in the right cars or on the right busses and he loathed carpool duty. No one followed the rules exactly, parents stopped to chat with each other instead of driving in an orderly fashion…

So by the time it was 4pm and Peter was still waiting for his ride, Steve felt pretty snappy. Stark had notified the office that he would be late and that all his other rides had fallen through, but Steve was unsympathetic. What was more important than picking up his son?

“I’m sorry you had to wait with me, Mr. Steve,” Peter said at one point as Steve played on his phone and Peter read his book.

“It’s not your fault, Peter,” Steve smiled at the young boy, afraid Peter would get a complex due to his father’s irresponsibility.

“Dad had a big meeting today with Auntie Pepper and Grandma Peggy. He had to fly all the way to Washington and yell at the people in the big round house,” Peter continued. “He told me all about it last night. Dummy went, too.”

Steve had heard Peter talk about ‘Dummy’ a lot and assumed it was a pet of some kind. “Why would your dad bring your dog to a meeting?”

Peter giggled. “You’re silly, Mr. Steve. It’s spelled dee-you-em-dash-ee. He’s is a robot and his name is actually ‘Dad’s Ultimate Machine Excavator’ because Daddy first built him with Uncle Rhodey to do some digging at the old Stark house, the one we never go to because Daddy says it’s haunted by all the ghosts of disappointed fathers, but I don’t know what that means, but I don’t want to ask because Daddy always looks sad when he talks about it and I don’t like it when Daddy is sad. Anyway, DUM-E is an early proto… prototype?”

“Yes, that’s the word, Peter,” Steve affirmed and Peter nodded.

“He’s an early prototype of the kind of robots that Daddy and Grandma Peggy think could help people who can’t move right by themselves. Auntie Pepper’s in a wheelchair, did you know that, Mr. Steve, and she sometimes can’t reach things on high shelves and so Daddy wants to make things for Auntie Pepper to go shopping better.”

Steve blinked a few times and tried to marry that comment to the public portfolio of Stark Industries and found it… difficult.

When the car did pull up at 4:07pm - seven minutes before Stark predicted, Steve noted grumpily - the man called out to his son the moment he got out of the car. “Petey pie! I’m so sorry, DUM-E didn’t want to get back on the plane, but then I told him it was for you and he moved a little faster.”

Stark’s phone must have rung at that point, because he stopped, looked at the device and sighed heavily.

“Mr. Steve, can I tell you a secret?” Peter asked as Tony approached, buried in his phone.

“Of course, Peter.”

Peter dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “You’re my second favorite omega in the whole wide world.”

Steve felt his face blush. “Well, that’s wonderful, Peter. Who’s your first favorite?”

“Daddy,” Peter said matter-of-factly as he got up and put his backpack on to run to the man in question.

“Petey pie, we talked about secrets, remember? And that’s a big one,” Tony Stark said in a slightly strange tone as he scooped up his son and planted a bunch of kisses all over his face and head.

Steve wasn’t sure what alternate dimension he’d slipped into, but Tony Stark was an alpha. Everyone knew that. Plus, he smelled like one.

“But -” Steve opened his mouth and Tony grimaced.

“Can I have your email, buddy?”

Steve nearly growled. “I’m not your buddy, and you have my email.”

“Sorry, Mr. Rogers,” Tony emphasized. “I have the school email, do you have a personal one?”

Steve rattled it off, skeptically, as Tony typed into his phone. “There, that should explain everything. Say goodbye to Mr. Rogers, Peter, we gotta get to Auntie Pep’s.”

“Bye, Mr. Steve!” Peter called joyfully from his dad’s arms. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Bye, Peter!” Steve called back. He reached for his phone as soon as the pair were in Stark’s car.

_To: sgrogers@gmail.com_  
_CC: ppotts@starkfutures.com, mmurdock@casserlylaw.com_  
_From: tstark@starkfutures.com_  
_Subject: NDA_

_Matt & Pep - code neighborhood._

_Steve - Peter’s not a liar. My staff will explain. Please don’t say anything until you speak to Matt or Pep._

_TS_

Attached was a PDF entitled “Stark Futures NDA - Personal” and his phone buzzed quickly with another incoming email.

_From: mmurdock@casserlylaw.com_  
_To: sgrogers@gmail.com, ppotts@starkfutures.com, tstark@starkfutures.com_  
_Subject: RE: NDA_

_Jesus hell, Stark. Give the guy a little more to go on._

_Mr. Rogers, please call me at your earliest convenience at 267-885-4421. That’s my personal cell and it is always on._

_Sincerely,_  
_Matt Murdock, Esq._

Steve blinked at his phone and then stared towards the horizon where the Starks’ car had disappeared to. He wasn’t quite sure how long he stood there, but the sun was a little lower than it had been. He wandered back inside his classroom, gathered his things, and then headed to his car in a daze.

Tony Stark was an Alphahole. This was public knowledge. He’d been an Alphahole since he finished at Allensville when he was 13 - even before he presented as an alpha. This was…

There was no way that Tony Stark was an omega.

He made the short drive back to his apartment, all the while ignoring the WhatsApp notifications from the group chat he had with his best friends - Nat, Sam, Bucky, and Carol. They were all supposed to go to Nat and Bucky’s house that night to watch The Bachelor and make fun of it and it was usually one of Steve’s favorite nights of the week. But tonight, he had a phone call to make. He quickly texted the group that he had to catch up on some parent emails and he’d see them next week before grabbing a beer from the fridge and settling on his couch.

“Now or never, Rogers,” he muttered to himself as he dialed Matt Murdock, Esquire’s phone number.

_“Matt Murdock.”_

“Hi, Mr. Murdock, this is Steve Rogers? Peter’s teacher?”

 _“Oh, hi! And please, it’s Matt.”_ The voice on the other end of the phone was pleasant, which Steve had not been expecting. _“We’re about to get to know each other pretty well, so first names are going to make it easier.”_

“We are?”

Matt laughed. _“Mr. Rogers -”_

“Steve.”

 _“Steve,”_ Matt corrected himself and Steve could hear a smile in his voice, _“what I’m about to tell you is something that literally twelve people know. We were prepared for Peter to tell you, since you’re the first non-family member he’s really bonded with, but we weren’t quite prepared for him to just lay it out there in the parking lot, so I hope you can appreciate Tony’s awkwardness.”_

“I’m just really confused, Matt,” Steve confessed.

“ _Understandable_ ,” Matt reassured him. _“Tony presented as an omega when he was 13, just after he graduated from Allensville, actually, and before he headed to MIT. His family, desperate to cover it up, hired him a support alpha to get him through the university experience. He pushed to graduate quickly so that he could have maximum freedom during heats without having to register them as heats. That support alpha is Pepper Potts, who you may be aware of.”_

Why yes, Steve was aware of the woman that Forbes had ranked as the country’s most powerful female alpha. Steve rolled his eyes as he said, “I’ve heard of her, yes.”

 _“‘Oh, sarcasm, Tony’s going to like that,”_ Matt chuckled. _“Pepper and Tony established quite a good working relationship and allowed the rumors to persist that they were a romantic couple. It was easier as Tony got older to justify to the press and to the SI board that he was in an alpha/alpha relationship than ii he was to admit to being an omega. So scent blockers were developed, and eventually Tony had some of his scent glands surgically altered. When he was 35, Stark Industries became entirely his own and he contemplated going public as an omega and then two things happened. First, there was that scandal with Omicon -”_

Steve closed his eyes and remembered the absolute chaos of the Academy Award winning actress admitting she was an omega and having her Oscars stripped from her.

_“And then, Tony had a one night stand and got pregnant with Peter. By this point, Stark Futures - which is his personal branch of the company - was up and running. Pepper was running everything else at SI and Tony was happy to just sign everything over to her legally and come out of the closet. But the law -”_

“The fucking Omega Protection Law says that unbonded omegas can’t pass down property to their children unless that child is an alpha,” Steve growled.

_“Correct, and Tony was not willing to gamble with his child’s future. So a new plan was concocted and that is the one to which you are now privy, Steve.”_

“But the Omega Rights Movement is gaining ground,” Steve said. “In the last three years, we’ve gotten so many new rights.”

_“Yeah, but you still aren’t allowed to pass down inheritances easily without a bonded alpha, which Tony has no interest in having, nor are omegas allowed to marry each other without consent of an alpha, which infuriates Tony to no end. So while we have lobbyists working on all of that and we are confident things are gaining ground, the plan keeps Peter safe. And now you’re part of it. Sorry, pal.”_

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s not like I have a choice now, do I?”

Matt inhaled deeply and Steve felt like he could hear the grimace. _“And I’d say that Peter didn’t mean to do it, but I think we both know he’s smart enough to know exactly what he was doing. He wanted you to know that piece of information and I’m sure Tony is grilling him about it right now, but yes, sorry. I need you to sign a bunch of things and promise us that you’ll maintain the cover.”_

“What’s the cover, exactly?”

_“Margaret Carter and Pepper Potts are the President and CEO of Stark Industries as a whole. Peggy is Tony’s … well, basically she’s his grandmother but there’s no blood. Their role in this is to make all the decisions Tony wants them to make but make sure there are biological alpha signatures on things in case he ever gets exposed. We’ve never confirmed or denied Peter’s mother - people always assume Tony would be with a female alpha, so we just go with it - but for your information, it was a one night stand with a business acquaintance in Tokyo who also does not know Tony is an omega.”_

“So, Peter could know his parental alpha, but Tony’s keeping him -”

_“Steve, none of this is easy, but all of it is to protect Peter in the long run. Are you in or are you out?”_

“What if I was out?”

 _“Then we’d arrange to have Peter change schools,”_ Matt said calmly and something in Steve twisted. Peter had a good life at Allensville, and good friends in MJ and Ned. To rip him away from that because Steve was uncomfortable went against everything he felt as an educator.

“ _Also_ ,” Matt interrupted his thoughts. _“That business acquaintance is a horrible, horrible man and this is from me and not from Tony - but I’d probably lay down in traffic before I let him near Peter.”_

Steve laughed. “So I’m not the only one not related to him who would basically die for him.”

 _“He has some sort of magical spell over all of us,”_ Matt laughed in return. _“So, we just need you to keep enforcing that Tony is an alpha, and I - as one of Peter’s godparents - would really appreciate it if you could keep being a safe person for him. It took a lot for Tony to send him to kindergarten - he was going to homeschool him - but we hit the jackpot with you.”_

Steve felt the blush creeping up his face. He knew he was a good teacher, but it was always special to hear it from others. “Thanks, Matt. I do my best.”

_“And your best is pretty fucking fantastic. Anyway, if you could sign the papers in the email and get them back to me, I’d appreciate it. Then I can answer any other questions you have.”_

Steve said he would, and hung up the call. For the next several hours, he read every word of the NDAs - wondering for the first time what life must be like for Tony.

And, he realized, thinking about him as Tony for the first time as well. He’d had Peter in his class for eight months and had always thought of his father as ‘Stark’.

Steve was as angry as anyone else at the terrible situation for omegas in America. They’d once enjoyed quite a few more freedoms, but the 1980s brought a rise to power of a faction of incredibly conservative alphas who decided that omegas were not to be trusted as anything else but wombs. As a particularly small boned omega who’d had a lot of health problems growing up, Steve’s womb was pretty much closed for business and he resented that that fact meant he was useless in a lot of people’s eyes. He went to marches and signed petitions and canvassed for progressive candidates, but….

But never in his life did he think about the indignity of not being able to pass something down to your child.

“I never thought I’d say this,” Steve addressed the air, “but I feel bad for the guy.”

* * *

At the same time as Steve was having his mind blown, Tony was wrestling to keep his anger under control.

“Petey Pie, love of my life, apple of my eye,” Tony said, making sure to keep his voice calm. “Why did you tell Mr. Steve?”

“Because,” Peter said matter-of-factly as he ate his after school snack of peanut butter on apple slices, “Mr. Steve seems lonely and you seem lonely and I want you to have someone like I have MJ and Ned.”

“Buddy, I’m not lonely,” Tony said, as his inner voice said liar. “I have you, I have Auntie Pep and Grandma Peggy and Uncle Rhodey and Uncle Matt.”

“But we never see them and when we do, it’s always about work and you get those squiggles in your face that mean you’re sad.”

Squiggles? Does he mean wrinkles?

“I just didn’t want you to be sad anymore,” Peter said.

“But that was a big risk to take, Peter,” Tony said, realizing that being mad at his kid wasn’t going to get them anywhere. “How could you know that Mr. Steve would be a good secret keeper?”

“Last month in story time,” Peter replied, “he told us all about his best friend and then we got to meet Mr. Bucky. He’s married to Mrs. Nat who teaches in the big school and he has a metal arm, Daddy, a metal arm and he said it’s because he got in a bad accident when he and Mr. Steve were in college and Mr. Steve saved Mr. Bucky’s life. Mrs. Nat said it was true! And that sounds like me and MJ because I would do anything for MJ, like keep lots of secrets for her, and if Mr. Steve is a good friend then he’s good at secrets.”

Five-year-old logic really was a thing of beauty.

“Okay, buddy, but no one but Mr. Steve, okay? And in the future, ask me first before you decide I need a friend?”

Peter furrowed his brow. “Okay, Daddy. I’m sorry.”

“Thanks, kid. Now, let’s get started on homework. What did Mr. Steve send you home with today?”

“OH! DADDY! YOU HAVE TO SEE MY CROWN.”

* * *

It took Steve two weeks, but he finally used the number Matt had given him.

_WhatsApp: Tony Stark_

_Steve: I signed all the papers and everything, but I wanted you to know from me that I won’t tell anyone._

_Tony: Thanks, Steve._

_Steve: Can I ask a question though?_

_Tony: Shoot._

_Steve: In that first email, you said code neighborhood?_

_Tony: LOL_

_Tony: Yeah, that’s just because we had to plan for what happened if you ever found out and your name is Mr. Rogers so…_

_Steve: There are so many more creative options than neighborhood, though_

_Steve: Land of make believe?_

_Steve: Cardigan?_

_Tony: Loafers_

_Steve: puppets_

_Tony: trains_

_Steve: See, you went for the low hanging fruit._

_Tony: my mistake, mr. rogers. Should have known the teacher would call me out for my lack of imagination_

_Steve: Shit, i just realized, is WhatsApp secure? Do I need to do something else?_

_Tony: I helped them build the encryption software. They don’t know that, but i did. This is good._

_Steve: good._

_Steve: you build software?_

_Tony: I build lots of things. You mold minds, I build things._

_Steve: I saw DUM-E. Or the pictures that peter brought of him. He’s pretty cool_

_Tony: yeah?_

_Steve: come on, stark. You know he’s cool._

_Tony: he’s really cool. Petey wants to bring him in for show and tell, but i need to borrow a truck to get him there. Can we arrange that?_

_Steve: the kids would love it._

Steve put down his phone and ran his hand over his face. “And so would I.”

* * *

As March stretched into April and April stretched into May, Steve found more and more of his life consumed with texting Tony Stark. Sometimes it was about Peter.

_Tony: I’m worried that he’s so much quicker than the other kids, that he’ll twist that into thinking he’s better than them._

_Steve: So you make sure he doesn’t. He doesn’t now - now he just gets frustrated. But your trick of him needing a moment to himself was a good one._

_Tony: That was pegs. She used to have me do the same thing when dad was hard_

_Steve: you never talk about your dad_

_Tony: so you think Peter’ll be okay?_

There were other times the conversations were about nothing at all… until they were about something.

_Tony: I’m telling you, Rogers, a sharply tailored suit is the way to go_

_Steve: I’m spending more money on clothes than i do on my mortgage, Tony._

_Tony: Men’s Warehouse has sales all the time. Just buy something off the rack and get it tailored. Men our height need tailoring._

_Steve: to do what?!_

_Tony: can you hear my sigh from across town? This is what happens when your best friend is a brick shithouse like barnes. You gotta get tailoring to show off your body_

_Steve: *grimace emoji*_

_Steve: there’s nothing to show_

_Tony: oh, that’s a lie. But you dress like you believe it_

_Steve: I’m twigs tied together by a shitty heart and crappy lungs, Tony. let’s not kid ourselves._

_Tony: svelte and sinewy and lanky, those i’ll give you. Not twigs._

_Steve: agree to disagree_

_Tony: sweetheart, i know other omegas who would actually sell their kidneys to have your bone structure. Hell, pep would._

_Steve: I stick out everywhere._

_Tony: everywhere?_

And Tony was getting itchy. He wanted to ask Steve on a date, badly and for several reasons. One, he really did think the man was beautiful and desperately wanted to know what he tasted like. Two, Peter adored him and Tony understood why. And three? Well, it would be really nice to have someone in his life who knew everything who wasn’t also on his payroll.

But there was the… weirdness of asking out his son’s teacher. Peter’s last day of kindergarten was June 11. Tony checked his phone - May 15. Surely he could make it another month?

* * *

“My daddy does that too.”

Steve’s head whipped up from his phone to see Peter standing in front of his desk. The kids were all supposed to be outside for recess, though, so…

“I came back in to use the restroom - “

Steve loved it when Peter used super adult words in his lispy cadence.

“- and I saw you going bright red when you looked at your phone. My daddy does that too and when I ask him why he says it’s because Mr. Steve said something funny. So are you red right now because Daddy said something funny?”

I’m red right now because your Daddy asked me about cock rings.

“Yeah, Peter. Your dad said something funny.”

Peter beamed and threw himself at Steve for a hug. “I knew it. You both make each other red! You should get married. I gotta tell MJ so we can make matching hats.”

Steve had no idea why there needed to be hats, or why they needed to be matching, or why MJ was involved, but he let his brain rest on the idea that he affected Tony the same way Tony affected him.

He checked his phone - June 6. Five more days until Steve could do something about it.

* * *

“That was quite the ceremony,” Tony remarked to Steve as Peter ran off briefly to go hug one of the classroom moms.

“The sunglasses hid those tears pretty well,” Steve smirked and hip checked Tony, who snorted.

“My baby graduated from kindergarten, Steven. I’m allowed to be emotional.”

“Never said you weren’t, Anthony,” Steve replied. “Just remarked that you were.”

“Bill’s up for a vote next week in the subcommittee,” Tony replied, in what to anyone else would be a non sequitur but Steve had a feeling he knew where Tony was going.

“You got the votes?”

“Nope,” Tony sighed. “Walken’s gonna hold it up. Mysogynistic dingabat.”

“So, the plan endures for first grade?”

“The plan endures,” Tony commented and then took a breath and Steve turned his head to see Tony staring directly at him. “He’s officially in first grade? Right? You’re absolutely not his teacher anymore?”

Steve let his hand wander slightly as he looped their pinkies together. “Absolutely not his teacher.”

“He asked me if Mr. Steve could come to his party,” Tony said. “Would Mr. Steve like to come and meet Grandma Peggy and Auntie Pepper and Uncle Matt and Uncle Rhodey?”

“Mr. Steve would like to be anywhere Tony and Peter are,” Steve confessed and the pinkies turned into full hands.

* * *

“STEEEEEEEEEVE,” Peter yelled as he cannonballed into the pool.

Tony turned to see his boyfriend - gaahhh, if that word didn’t just send him - approach the pool. He smelled terrible and Tony wrinkled his nose. “Baby, what’s the matter?”

“I forgot to turn off the Google alert like you told me to,” Steve grumbled as he leaned down to kiss Tony gently before settling into the lounge chair next to him. News had broken the week before that Tony Stark was dating his son’s former teacher and the internet had _feelings_ about it.

“Oh, Stevalicious,” Tony giggled. “Amateur mistake.”

“Is it so terrible I just want to defend you? And tell them you didn’t take advantage of our power imbalance or whatever? Just because I make in a year what you make in a minute -”

Tony cut him off with a longer, sloppier kiss. When he pulled away. “I’m in this and you know that. They don’t matter. They make money off of other people’s pain or distract themselves with it, depending on who ‘they’ are. Peter loves you, I love you, and hell, Pegs is about ready to adopt you.”

Before he had a chance to reply, Steve was greeted with a soaking wet child in his lap.

“Hi kiddo,” Steve said, placing a kiss to the top of Peter’s forehead. In the two months since he’d said yes to the party, Steve’s entire world had gotten simultaneously more complicated and more wonderful.

“Do you wanna come swim?”

“Do you think we can get your dad to come with us?” Steve whispered conspiratorially to Peter.

“I’m working,” Tony protested and Steve responded by taking off Tony’s glasses and prying the phone from his hand.

“And now you’re playing,” Steve said and Peter gave out a ‘whoop’ before jumping back into the pool

“I’d like to play with you later,” Tony said with a slight growl to his voice.

“I caught those words,” Steve replied. “And I do, too.”

Tony looked at him with a blush across his cheeks. “I’m sorry, they just kinda-”

Steve snaked his hand around the back of Tony’s neck and brought him in for a kiss. Steve’s tongue pressed along the seam of Tony’s lips and Tony braced himself for teeth and tongue and longing and instead, he got tenderness. When Steve pulled away, he pressed their foreheads together.

“Me too, ‘mega. Me too.”

* * *

“PETER,” Steve called, “CAN YOU PLEASE BE A LITTLE CAREFUL?”

“I’M FINE, STEVE,” Peter called back from his place on the playground, a few hundred yards from where Steve and Tony were sitting on a bench.

“He’s part spider, I swear,” Steve muttered to his boyfriend of two years, who was completely engrossed in his phone. “Tony?”

No response.

“Tony,” Steve shoved his elbow playfully into Tony’s side and the other man still didn’t move. That’s when Steve turned to Tony and realized he was crying.

“Baby,” Steve said quickly, “what’s the matter?”

Tony wordlessly handed the phone to Steve, who saw the text on the screen.

_Pep: Just got word from McInerney. The bill passed and the President is rushing the signing. You can marry Steve, Tony. And you can leave SI to Peter. It’s real. Go get your happily ever after, honey. Go get it._

Steve looked at Tony through tears of his own. “It’s real?”

“It’s real, honey,” Tony kissed Steve. “It’s real. Pep doesn’t lie.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Steve whispered into their kiss.

“I’M BEING CAREFUL AND YOU’RE NOT EVEN WATCHING YOU’RE BEING GROSS.”

Peter’s call broke their bubble of joy.

“Time to be dads?”

“Time to get that happily ever after, baby,” Steve whispered and threaded his fingers through Tony’s. “And my answer is yes.”

“Peter?” Tony called, his voice clogged with tears. “Can you come here, quick, please? We have some important news.”

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> From Flame:  
> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Put on the Suit Stony Server](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or the [PotsCast Podcast server. Oh! And FestiveFerret and I have a ](http://www.discord.com/4NbA7wy)[fandom podcast](http://www.podonthesuit.com) if you're so inclined.  
>   
> 


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